High-Tech Execs Mentor Underserved Israeli College Students

by Bruria Efune – chabad.org

Up in the Galilee mountains in Israel’s north—far from the high-tech centers of Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Netanya—more than 5,000 students study science and technology at the Braude College of Engineering in the small, scenic city of Karmiel. Many are from immigrant families and underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds.

This week, a select group of up to 100 students will begin experiencing something usually reserved for those at the world’s leading universities when high-tech stars, venture capitalists, angel investors and Fortune 500 executives take part in “Project Up-Start,” a three-stage internship program initiated by Chabad on Campus Karmiel. The program—under the direction of Rabbi Nosson and Miriam Rodin, and Rabbi Bentzi and Fruma Katz, is supported by the college’s president, and high-tech influencers and investors from as far away as New York City.

The program kicks off this week with a panel featuring Sivan Baram, a Techstars TLV Alum, and the CEO and co-founder of Radd; venture investor Daniel Bernard of Mindspring Capital; entrepreneur Doron Ben David, co-founder of Indoor Robotics; and Daniela Weinsweig, program manager of 365x, a startup ecosystem in partnership with Sarona Ventures.

The program is designed to help young people break into the startup world, while connecting them with Chabad programs at the school. On a typical week, Chabad programming in Karmiel includes advanced Torah-study courses, chavruta-style learning, women’s events, volunteer visits with the elderly and people with disabilities, and Shabbat meals.

Mattan Bitton, an engineering student at Braude, says the project is exactly what he and his friends were hoping for. “We’ve been talking about something like this for a long time,” he tells Chabad.org. “We have innovative ideas that we want to create, but we don’t have the know-how or tools to bring it to production and market it. When we received the email announcing Project Up-Start, we were so excited.”

Bitton explained the need for the project among his peers: “There are many students here, brilliant engineers who have valuable ideas; they talk about them in class, but they all go to waste because they don’t know how to shape them. Bringing an idea from concept to market and creating a successful startup—there is so much knowledge and tools needed, and until now, we didn’t have it.”

“I don’t keep Shabbat or anything,” says Bitton, “but I respect Chabad. It feels more secure and genuine that it is coming from them. I know they want to help us.”

With the know-how and tools that they’ll be gaining from Project Up-Start, Bitton and his friend hope to create two startup companies they’ve been thinking about for a long time.

Program Grew Out of Chabad Expansion Plans

The project was born in a roundabout way. Chabad activities on the campus have been expanding over the past few years as the student population increased dramatically. Recently, the campus had to reappropriate the only student recreation rooms for use as classrooms. Seeing the need for a larger space than his own home for the Jewish students to gather, Rodin began making plans to purchase a building right next to the campus and started working through his network to find sponsors.

“For many of the students, we literally become their home,” explains Rodin, “especially the students from homes with food insecurity, and those who need love and stability, but also to students who simply want to elevate their lives spiritually. And more were coming to us every week.”

Among the first group of people Rodin reached out to was Shea (Josh) Rubinstein, CEO of a real estate development company, J Builders of New York, and an investor and social entrepreneur. He is heavily involved in his local Jewish community and co-founded the JCC of Marine Park and JConn Business Conferences, attended by 10,000 people each year.

“One day, I got a random message on LinkedIn,” Rubinstein tells Chabad.org. “His name is Rabbi Nosson Rodin, and he tells me that he lives in a city called Karmiel, and I’ve never heard of it before.”

Rodin asked Rubinstein for his advice and support—not only in purchasing the building, but also in creating programming that would be attractive to the engineering students.

Rubinstein was intrigued. “I asked him, what is it that the students really want? They’re engineering students, maybe they want internships at Fortune 500 companies? Something that looks good on their resume? What about investors looking at their startups?”

Brainstorming With the University President

That call led to a big idea, and an initial conversation on Zoom between Braude College president Dr. Arie Maharshak, Rubinstein and Rodin.

“I told the president, you don’t realize what you have here,” says Rubinstein. “You’re not just looking at a rabbi with a beard who’s making people crazy about Jewish stuff. You have a director of entrepreneurship. You have a very smart, well-spoken, English-speaking person from Canada who has a lot of connections.”

Rubinstein then pitched the new initiative, saying. “I will guarantee you 100 paid internships for your students and up to $1,000,000 in seed funding, and we’ll hold a panel of different high-tech and venture-capital people four times a year. We’ll have Fortune 500 CEOs come speak via Zoom on a big screen. And that’s what your students will really look forward to because this is what they want. They don’t just want to go to school and have a dead-end job; they want something serious. They want to be the next Waze and the next Google.”

Maharshak loved it. Coming from immigrant families and living in the periphery, Braude students aren’t as well connected to the startup world as their contemporaries in other popular engineering universities. Rubinstein and Rodin were pitching something that could be life-changing for these students.

A few weeks later, the three met on Zoom again, this time with another visionary: Ronald Hans.

Hans and Rubinstein had met in 2018 when JCC of Marine Park co-hosted a Crown Heights Young Entrepreneur event at which Hans was a panelist. A venture capitalist, and co-founder of MetroCap Partners and Tech Talk Media, Hans agreed to join Rodin and Rubinstein as a co-founder to the new project at Braude College. With just one email to his portfolio companies, he secured 100 paid internships for the new program.

The president was impressed and gave a go-ahead to what would be called “Project Up-Start.”

“You know,” Rubinstein comments, “even though I’m a businessperson, this entire project, for me, it’s not about anything except for helping a local Chabad rabbi, plus Judaism.”

Hans used his experience to help Rodin develop the program details, which they divided into three parts: foundational education, a boot camp, and practical ongoing support.

“We’re starting with what we call pre-ideation,” explains Hans. “We’re inspiring and empowering students to understand what’s going on around them, so they can better engage from a standpoint of confidence to take their career and their future in the direction that they so desire.”

Introducing the Startup Ecosystem

The foundational education component is delivered in person and via Zoom, and focuses on helping students understand the startup ecosystem and how it works. This includes learning about the different players in the ecosystem, such as investors and entrepreneurs, as well as the vocabulary and documentation required to engage with these players. This stage will include in-person panels with stars from the Israeli tech world.

The second component is a 12-week boot camp held during the summer, which covers a range of topics related to starting and growing a successful startup. These topics include ideation, or coming up with a business idea; conceptualization, or turning the idea into a viable product or service; and commercialization, or taking the product or service to market. The boot camp is taught by experts in each field, and the university has the option to offer it as a formal class for credit or as a university-supported event.

The third component of Project Up-Start is ongoing support and private mentorship for participating students as they work to turn their ideas into successful startups. This may include help with raising capital, building the company and developing an exit strategy.

For Hans, Project Up-Start is his way of taking his knowledge and experience and using it to give back to the Jewish community in a big way. “I had struggled with how to take all these passions and make them work, and help students but at scale. I mentor four or five students a year personally. It’s great. But how do I do that for say, 40,000? This is the path to scale. This is what will be built right now.”

Liad Neta, an engineering industry and management student who frequents Chabad on Campus at Braude College, thinks Project Up-Start will be a huge success. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There are many engineering students here who are thinking about founding a startup. When the rabbi told them about the idea for Project Up-Start, they asked him to run with it. They will gain a lot of practical knowledge and tools to utilize that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”

Between classes on how to manage funding, create an effective pitch-deck and bring a concept to production, students will also learn how to run a business the Jewish way.

Shlomo Kalish, founder and managing partner at Jerusalem Global Ventures and managing partner of Corundum Open Innovation Ltd., will be giving his popular lecture on “the 10 commandments of startups.” Kalish explains how to be commercially successful, but also spiritually and personally successful. Through the courses, students will also gain insight in Jewish business ethics and practical laws pertaining to loan interest.

Hans hopes that the program will also inspire students with the Jewish value of tzedakah and give back to the community after they grow successful. “Philanthropy is a value that drives a company forward,” he says.

“I really hope that this can take off and be replicated,” says Rubinstein. “Just like you have Friendship Circle or JLI, I would love to see Chabad on a thousand campuses around the world with Project Up-Start. It’s going to change the world—financially, Jewishly, and the beauty is, it takes no money to change the world and add billions of dollars of value, and billions of dollars of mitzvot at no additional charge.”

For more information about the project Up-Start, contact Rabbi Rodin here.